Week 7 – Understanding Historical Trends in Within Country Income Inequality

This week we are discussing historical trends in within country income inequality.

Our discussion is based on this week’s reading: Milanovic, Branko. 2016. Global Inequality – A New Approach for the Age of Globalization. [Chapter 2 – pp. 46 – 117]

Carefully go over my PowerPoint presentation with voiceover where I explain important ideas and concepts covered in the readings.

Watch the video below that explains what are Malthusian Cycles

Watch the video below where Lawrence Katz discusses the race between education and technology

 

Lecture Posts Questions:

On the comments section below, address the following questions (answers should be at least 100 words in length and posted by Sunday – This is how participation points are assessed. Please save your comments in a safe document before attempting to post it.

  1. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear? Any thoughts or comments you would like to share?
  2. From the reading what is not clear?
  3. After watching the video on Malthus, in your own words, explain what are Malthusian Cycles
  4. After watching Katz’s video, in your own words, explain what is the race between education and technology

 

15 thoughts on “Week 7 – Understanding Historical Trends in Within Country Income Inequality

  1. Question #1:
    From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear? Any thoughts or comments you would like to share?
    I have a few comments I’d like to mention about the PowerPoint. The explanation of the first and second Kuznets curve really helped as I understood how the various events occurring throughout a multitude of time frames (i.e; Industrial Revolution, or Napoleonic War), strongly affected the growths and dips of inequality. The plague from the years 1628-1632 was a large inequality reducer. By having more workers wanted in demand however, wages will of course rise. One of the things that stood out to me, was just how this differed between countries or regions. The presentation shows how Northern and Southern Europe felt guilty in controlling wages. Since it was easier for Southern Europe to be successful in reduction, the North faced hardships due to having an overall weaker feudal institution. Another main point I want to recapitulate is how the inequality extraction ratio can be so much depending on the level of income that’s being produced. If there is a dramatically low level of income, there won’t be any stagnant changes. Inequality won’t have much space to move, and that was prevalent in Kuznets curve.

    Question #2:
    From the reading, what is not clear?
    While at first I didn’t understand the whole concept of benign and malign mechanisms, the presentation helped me decipher the differences between the two. I understood that benign is moreso associated with economics, whereas malign deals with war, epidemic/plagues and how that impacts inequality as shown in the Kuznets curve. I’ve learned that the three elements that shaped the evolution of inequality come from: Technology, Openness (globalization), and Politics, or otherwise known as TOP. Other notes from Milanovic’s text was how Wars have a pro or anti relationship on inequality. I see this as more of a positive and beneficial event as the rich are contributing portions of wealth for this to take place. A large takeaway I’ve gotten is from technological advancements and how that alters reality. For instance during the beginning of the technological revolution, rents were going through dissipation and in turn this was responsible for a decrease in inequality.

    Question #3:
    After watching the video on Malthus, in your own words, explain what are Malthusian Cycles
    Malthusian Cycles was a concept invented by Thomas Malthus dealing with the relationship between growing populations and food production. He stated that the growth of populations takes place at a faster rate than the supply of food, thus leading to the development of a poverty-stricken or poor country. This means that as years go by, the population will have undergone a strong decline because of food shortages. This population growth may be portrayed as exponential while creation of food takes a slower sequence. Evidence corroborated his findings and by having a slower means of food manufacturing, less and less people have the means to survive thus giving huge significance to these Cycles.

    Question #4:
    After watching Katz’s video, in your own words, explain what is the race between education and technology.
    The race between education and technology is an interesting notion that Katz provides. If we see education surpass the advancements in technology, then inequality lessens. However, if it was the other way around and technology was shifting faster, then the inequality expands as these new inventions are replacing the average human worker. Education is a very powerful tool and with more and more getting a rich quality education, the creation of competition there becomes alongside the wealthy which therefore results in the downward trend of inequality. The issues we see here, are of course with the amount of high school and college graduates. While you get a higher return of income with achieving more levels of school (=attaining higher degrees), you can make more say with a Masters Degree than someone with a Bachelors. Some countries lack in not having any educational means, thus not allowing the individuals of that population to contribute in the growing world of inequality. In addition, technology poses many advantages as this can help us through many ways. Yet, with more machines or bots doing the work faster than that of the working class, unemployment goes up as we’re seeking for labour in order to continue existing.

  2. 1. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear? Any thoughts or comments you would like to share?

    The presentation was clear and interesting. I was surprised to learn that plagues and wars decrease inequality. Hearing about how wealth was divided amongst heirs or divided amongst the estate was also intriguing. The only factor that I expected to hear was that there would be a decrease in inequality is the fact that there were less able-bodied men. They were recruited during war or died during plagues. As a result, there would be a significantly smaller pool from which to derive a workforce. I think it is interesting as well that these maligned factors do not necessarily hold true today. For example, Jeff Bezos’s net worth has swollen from around 74 billion to around 190 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic, our current modern-day plague.

    2. From the reading what is not clear?

    From the reading (and I know this was mentioned in the lecture as well) I am confused about how the mean income affects inequality, and how this effect is more apparent in post-industrial revolution societies. I would appreciate additional explanation because I thought that mean incomes could be robust to changes in inequality. This seems like a complex dynamic I am having some trouble grasping. Is there a certain threshold where mean incomes no longer affect inequality in a society or is it related to per capita data and therefore must consider how dense a population is within any particular society?
    3. After watching the video on Malthus, in your own words, explain what Malthusian Cycles are.
    Malthusian Cycles are named after Thomas Malthus, an Enlightenment thinker. He theorized that because population increases faster than the agricultural supply grows to meet it, there would be continue to be catastrophic events of human starvation such as the Irish famine. He theorized that because there is an increasing deficit in the amount of food supply and the number of people born, such cycles would persist.
    4. After watching Katz’s video, in your own words, explain what is the race between education and technology

    The race between education and technology is concerned with the way technology is advancing and the effects such advances may have on the workforce, educational attainment, and how additional education is required to attain a place in the work field. It is noteworthy that local governments were responsible for creating high schools so that students could attain more education and develop additional skillsets. This change decreased inequality because a high school education equalized the job market between average job seekers and those who would have received nepotistic jobs. This societal change has not yet occurred and a college education is therefore not accessible to everyone. Furthermore, those who do manage to attain college-level education are still forced to compete with jobs that are replaced with technology, such as clerical workers.

  3. 1. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear? Any thoughts or comments you would like to share?
    • Everything in the presentation

    2. From the reading what is not clear?
    • Everything from the reading was clear.

    3. After watching the video on Malthus, in your own words, explain what are Malthusian Cycle
    • After watching the video on Malthus I got that as the population of humans increase the amount of food decreases. Whenever there’s a gain in food production population increases, and overtime the population will surpass the production of food and then when it crashes that will cause poverty and crisis. But with technological advance those crises can be held at bay. So basically if there’s less food being produced while there’s a population increase then poverty will continue to be on the rise

    4. After watching Katz’s video, in your own words, explain what is the race between education and technology
    • After watching Katz video from my understanding is that over time people in the United States got the opportunity to become educated. But when technology came about the gap between jobs and education became prominent Jobs that were easily available such as office jobs which would require a worker to do things manually such as scan, write or even post things off, are now being replaced by technology. The point that was made in the video is that as much as technology progresses so should education so that inequality could decrease. And improving the quality and accessibility to college then the individuals who become highly educated will have a higher income which leads to a greater chance of lowering inequality.

  4. 1.From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear? Any thoughts or comments you would like to share?
    The presentation is clear. What I found interesting was that the “black death” plague caused inequality to decrease noticeably and I wonder if it was because if a society loses a huge amount of wealth, would it impact the ones who are rich more than the rest or would it be subjective to the time and place. I also find it interesting that technology is among the reasons for an increase in inequality because technology also gives a lot of people awareness over issues like global inequality.

    2.From the reading what is not clear?
    The reading was mostly clear. I had a question regarding the benign and malign forces because they seemed very similar at first, however, the presentation helped clearing it out with the use of examples. Besides that it was clear and the presentation really helps grasp and simplify some of the terms.
    3.After watching the video on Malthus, in your own words, explain what are Malthusian Cycles
    The Malthusian Cycles say that population growth occurs at faster velocity than food supply. Therefore as the population continues to grow at a faster pace than food supplies it will eventually lead to famine, poor countries, and many more catastrophic events like war that will cause the population to decrease. Even with the help of technology increasing food production these cycles will continue to grow as long as the population grows at a faster rate than food.

    4.After watching Katz’s video, in your own words, explain what is the race between education and technology
    The race between education and technology is an important race that impacts our decisions on how we want to spend our lives. As technology advanced, it began to replace jobs that otherwise would be available to people and began requiring people to be more capable in order to best fit for the jobs. That capability derives from higher education. In general, the higher the education the higher an individuals earnings would be.

  5. 1.The PowerPoint was clear. The explanations of the graphs, and the information given to us helped me a lot with the reading. (THANK YOU!!) I used the PowerPoint lecture as guidance while reading chapter 2.

    2.The reading was clear to me. It was packed with information pertaining to what influences the Kuznets waves or cycles. We were introduced to new terms such Kuznets curves, Great Leveling, Pari passu, benign and malign forces, – TOP, technology, openness, and policy, and much more. The chapter discussed the impacts of wars, epidemics, technology, skills, and policies on income. Also discussing strong intuitions and their relationships with income inequality. The chapter explains the Kuznets waves between different nations. Chapter 2 explains what pushes up, and down inequality in preindustrial societies. Also explaining what is driving the second Kuznets wave up and what drives it down. Overall, I understood what the chapter was discussing, and the PowerPoint lecture helped guide me through the reading.

    3. Malthusian cycles are Thomas Malthus ideas concerning the relationship between food productivity and population. Thomas Malthus tries to explain and predict the patterns of poverty. Malthus concludes that population and food supplies grow at different rates. Population tends to grow at a more rapid speed than food. Overtime the growth of population exceeds the increase of agriculture production and creates food shortages for the population and will cause population to crash. Thomas Malthus said, “The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in earth to produce subsistence for man”, explaining the Malthusian cycles. When food production increases overtime to meet the demand, and population exceeds the food resource capacity is called Malthusian crisis. Although improvements in technology and agricultural techniques have helped the productivity of food in present day, we could still see patterns of why Malthus was not wrong in his theory. Agricultural productivity growth has been decreasing the past few decades and is expected to continue the same trend. If this continues as expected, it will prove that Malthus was right and our food productivity will not meet our populations demand.

    4.Lawrence Katz discusses the impact of education and technology on income inequality. Explaining that education has changed over the last 100 years. In 1910, less than 10% of American children earned a high school diploma; in 1940 majority of children were earning a high school degree. The shift in education allowed opportunities that were not available before and allowed individuals to compete for jobs. The influence on education narrowed inequality by reducing the educational wage premium. It is the reason why there was an interest for investing in school. Katz discusses the rapid expansion in education and technology. Explaining the hypothesis of skilled biased technological change, which give the individuals who are educated an advantage in earning more, and able to maneuver with the increase of technology. The main theme of his discussion was to try and understand if this period is different because of technological change or is it because education is influencing individuals to understand the technology, giving them an advantage. Lawrence Kats claims that when educating increases (races) faster than technology, there is a decrease in inequality within education. On the contrary when technology grows at a faster pace than education, the inequality within education widens. I understand that if we expand education, individuals will have larger and more beneficial returns. Our nation will be wealthier if education is provided for all, or many more individuals. This will cause more competition for jobs that have been held by “elites”, and broadening education will reduce income inequality.

  6. 1. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear? Any thoughts or comments you would like to share?

    I thought it was interesting that countries decided to make the effort to decrease inequality during the cold war. I wish they would have the same mindset about showing capitalism to be a better option out of respect for their citizens and not for competition. After the second technological revolution, did inequality increase because of disparities in labor skills? I was surprised that trade unions did not have as much of a positive impact on wages because I thought they would usually be the pathway for equality. The reduction of inequality was influenced by malign forces. I feel like reduction of inequality was not done by choice but from unfortunate circumstances that resulted in mass death.

    2. From the reading what is not clear?

    So the Malthusian checks refer to the idea that if a population were to have low inequality the population will surpass carrying capacity and cause high levels of inequality once again? I did not realize that this could be a result of making inequality levels very low. Did the event of developed countries adopting some forms of capitalism cause an increase in income inequality? While using capitalist ideals, is there a way to also have income inequality not to become very high? Why did the trade union density decreases in other sectors but not the private sector? Is this because the private sector has workers with more income?

    3. After watching the video on Malthus, in your own words, explain what are Malthusian Cycles

    Malthusian cycles are referring to how high levels of food production can lead to a population exceeding carrying capacity. The graph shows how the population was growing too quickly so the food production was not able to keep up. Malthusian predicted that during 1970-1980 there will be another phase of starvation according to the population growth pattern of the 1800s. Malthus was incorrect because there was a decrease in birth and death rates after there more preventative measures for illnesses, higher education levels, and contraceptives. There was a growth in food production when the technological advancements allowed for quicker production. However, food production is not increasing as quickly so the food prices are increasing after more food being consumed than being produced. Today’s population is near carrying capacity shows that Malthus did have a valid point on food production limiting the population size.

    4. After watching Katz’s video, in your own words, explain what is the race between education and technology

    Katz was discussing the rising inequality that is caused by the advancement of technology that exceeds the education levels of the population. Skill Biased Technological Change was when there was an increase in wages for highly educated people that can handle big data. College graduates earn about twice the wage of a high school graduate. Technology advancing at a higher pace than education attainment can lead to a rise in inequality. High school is available for anyone to complete for free with public education, but college might be affordable for everyone. The cost of education can cause a divide between the elites and lower-income classes since the accessibility at both levels will be very different. A solution to reduce inequality in this race of education and technology is to make college more accessible to those of lower classes.

  7. 1. The presentation was really informative and broke down some of the points from the reading down well. I was surprised how the plaques and wars affected inequality in ways that benefits people even though it is through something bad. That made me think of the fiirst question from the powerpoint is every reduction in inequality good and how it was pointed out in the powerpoint it doesnt seem to be good.

    2. The powerpoint clarified things for me such as the Kuznets cycles and more. Which is why i appreciate the powerpoints.

    3. The Malthusian cycles is when population growth reaches its limit where it affects agricultural production. Which then causes the population to limited food and necessary needs. Malthus gives us the idea that population growth is a constant cycle that cannot be stopped where as food supply and other resources is not an upward line.

    4. New technology is constantly being produced and it has been affecting what middle skilled jobs were during the mid 20th century. Technology takes jobs from people and if education is ahead of the race with technology inequality decreases. If it is the other way around inequality increases. Technology cant be too far ahead because it will eventually lead to higher inequality rates and in order to avoid that we need higher quality of education and provide guaranteed college degrees.

  8. 1. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear? Any thoughts or comments you would like to share?

    The PowerPoint was very clear and informative. What I found interesting is that the reaction of the Black Death in terms of wages did not have the same effect everywhere in Europe. In Northern Europe the weaker the feudal institutions the more difficult it was to control wages. Where in South Europe the stronger the feudal institution the easier effort to reduce wages. It was interesting to know that the Black Death actually cause a decrease in inequality. I would like to know if it was because the black death plague was one of the deadliest pandemics in history which cause the death of hundreds of people which result in a shift in the balance of bargaining power towards capitalism and laborers. Also, I would like to know if the Coronavirus will do the same by reducing inequality?

    2. From the reading what is not clear?
    The reading was very clear and understanding, it was like wrapping up some of the topics we discuss in class and also some new terms were introduced in the Reading. Also, the reading explaining more of the different factors that can influence the Kuznets waves between the different nations and societies. It explains how war, higher-skilled, policies in wages, technology advancement, and other factors can have an impact on inequality. It was interesting to know the changes in inequality in preindustrial and modern society. The reading was very interesting because it goes in deep and gave a good example of the different factors that can contribute to the shift of inequality within nations and society.

    3. After watching the video on Malthus, in your own words, explain what are Malthusian Cycles

    The Malthusian Cycles is the relationship between population growth and the Food supply chain. The population grew in a geometric progression where each term after the other the number is multiplied. Whereas, the food production grew in an arithmetic progression which means that the difference between each term is constant. Malthus
    believes that the population is growing faster than the supply of food which means that it will cause an imbalance and strain on society cause an intolerable social condition because the increase in population growth will lead to food shortage. Also, technological innovation and advanced agricultural techniques can delay an increase in population growth and delay the crisis. Once the population exceeds the food supplies their need to survive will create a Malthusian crisis with widespread famine and diseases which can decrease the population in the earlier term.

    4. After watching Katz’s video, in your own words, explain what is the race between education and technology

    The race between education and technology are that the level of educational attainment and structure of wages by which technology, education, and inequality are involved in a kind of race because of how education, technology, and inequality are revolving overtime. When the technology race was ahead of education technology was widening. Whereas, when education was ahead of the race of technology there was a decline in inequality in education differentially. Therefore, both education and technology should move ahead fast but not one moving faster than the other because it can increase the cleavage of inequality. To win the race between education and technology, we should creates more expansion of schools and provide greater access to higher quality of education for all by which these individuals will have a better chance to higher income which will result in more wealth and also the creation of more competition to the Elites.

  9. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear? Any thoughts or comments you would like to share?
    -In the PowerPoint, you talked about the race between technology and technology. You mention they would more likely give the job to a higher educator worker than a low-skill worker. Wouldn’t it be easier to train the low-skill workers to use advanced technology so everyone can have an equal opportunity? In today’s Society, Some people who haven’t been to college or even finished and have a GED can start from the bottom and work their way into becoming managers for the company they work for.

    From the reading what is not clear?
    -The reading was pretty much clear. There were a lot of interesting points. Also, the graphs help me understand certain components of the reading. The PowerPoint help me with the reading.

    After watching the video on Malthus, in your own words, explain what are Malthusian Cycles
    -The Malthusian Cycle was created by Thomas Malthus. He was an Enlightenment thinker who studied the growth of the population. The Malthusian Cycle is population growth. The population would increase when there is an increase in the food supply. If there isn’t any food supply the population will decrease. Also when there is an increase in population and food supply there is unless likely to have famine, disease, and war. Demographic transition is the difference between the total population, birth rates, and death rates.

    After watching Katz’s video, in your own words, explain what is the race between education and technology
    -The race between education and technology as education increases also technology increases. Certain jobs that require a person was easily replaced by technology. Technology took over most jobs before the 20th century. In the video Katz states that “when education races ahead faster than technology one sees declining inequality in education differentials. When technology moves ahead faster than education one sees widening”. I agree with what he says because education and technology be at the same level to give everyone an equal opportunity for everyone to get an education and use their skills in technology.

  10. 1. The presentation was very clear. I don’t know if it was meant to be like that, but for the 6th slide, it seems like the audio cuts off. I found slide 6 and 7 to be very interesting because the idea that catastrophe. Like wars and plagues, can bring inequality down is pretty ironic and interesting. It also makes me wonder if the same will hold true with the COVID, but I honestly doubt it since it seems to me that the rich have consolidated their wealth in a way that is not significantly affected by something like the current pandemic. On the point of wars, I also wonder if the same would hold true. I understand wars lowering inequality because as Branko explains, because the rich are forced to pay most of the cost of going to war or due to decrease in the total population. However, I wonder if people who usually weren’t allowed to work during the two world wars suddenly being able to work was also a factor in decreasing inequality. Women had to take up the factory jobs of the men during both World Wars since ‘m the men were being drafted to war. Black men were also drafted to wars, and I’m assuming they received a salary for serving. I wonder how a large scale war would affect inequality today seeing as both of those groups are very integrated in the work place and seeing as socialist policies where the rich pay most of the cost of going to war are now more unpopular.
    2. The reading was pretty clear. I don’t understand a small point Brank made about benign forces in societies with a stagnant mean income vs with a rising mean income. He says that it is only in societies with a rising economy that many of the benign forces that drive down inequality present themselves, such as education. In table 2.1 (pg. 56), he lists social pressure as a benign force for societies with a rising mean income. However, why can’t something like social pressure not be a benign factor in societies with a stagnant mean income? Wouldn’t the fact that the mean income is stagnant lead to people to protest their government?
    3. Malthusian Cycles is a theory by Thomas Malthus describing the relationship between population growth, food production and famine. Basically, the population increase faster than the supply of food available to maintain that growing population. The food supply first grows at a rate that it can maintain current population levels, leading to an increase in the population since there are enough resources, and thus the cycle begins because the population rate surpasses that of the food production rate leading to famine which leads to a crash in the population size.
    4. The race of education and technology refers to how fast technology is advancing vs how fast education is creating a supply of worker with the technical skills to keep up with technology. Education advancing faster leads to a decrease in inequality since more people are able to find a job and put their technical skills to use. On the other hand, technology advancing faster than education leads to an increase in inequality since worker are simply not able to keep up with these big advances in technology, essentially making the education they attained less valuable. The issue is in making sure both advance, but that technology doesn’t overtake education in the race.

  11. 1. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear? Any thoughts or comments you would like to share?
    Malaigne Factors cause inequality to go down as I read in the PowerPoint, these factors are examples of plagues and wars. There is also a decrease of able bodied males to hire for work while this is happening. I did not necessarily understand why this is connected to war and plague? Is this because there are more younger men entering the war? Also, is this bad or good for the economy. War brings in money I’ve always heard, but if we are losing workers how does that help boost the economy?
    2. From the reading what is not clear?
    From the reading I was confused about how during the pre-industrial times wars either created an increase in inequality if it resulted in a state collapsing or a decrease in inequality if it was a war based on conquest. I do not understand why inequality would decrease if a war was based on conquest, also, the reading states that in modern times, because of mass mobilization and progressive taxation, wars are helping to reduce inequality. This is confusing to me too because there are always two sides to war and doesnt one group always end up losing, so how is inequality improving?
    3. After watching the video on Malthus, in your own words, explain what are Malthusian Cycles
    Malthusian Cycles showed that the population is growing at a higher rate than the supply of food. Malthus believed that technological advancement and better agricultural techniques would cause an increase to the population ceiling. In his chart it explains that what goes up must come down, meaning that if the population goes up eventually it will go back down if there are too many people on the planet and not enough food for each individual. Malthusians theory helped prove the idea that Earth cannot sustain too many people if the mass population continues. Mathematically it shows that population is growing at a geometrical rate 2,4,8,16, while the food supply increases only arithmetically 2, 4, 6, and 8.
    4. After watching Katz’s video, in your own words, explain what is the race between education and technology?
    Over the last 100 years in the United States there has been an increase in education for individuals in the USA. Today the youth group is more educated than their parents but the only difference is that there are less jobs available for individuals due to technology taking over certain jobs such as data entry. The main take away from this Katz video is that technology shouldn’t move faster than education because it will create great inequality amongst individuals who are less educated and those who are. An easy way to control this is by expanding access to good quality education; With a focus on expanding access to college. The more individuals graduate from college the more they are able to enter into professional fields and compete with the elite.

  12. 1. The PowerPoint was very clear and simplified concepts mentioned in the reading. I find the question: Is Every Reduction in Inequality Good?, a very interesting one. I was intrigued to find out Milanovic’s reasoning as to why it isn’t always good, and I agree with him. Certain things that lead to a reduction in inequality (like wars and plagues) aren’t ideal ways to decrease inequality. Why is it that a nation must go through something so tragic, to then see a decrease in inequality? This makes me think of the Kuznets Curve; something tragic happens that lowers inequality, to then just increase again as the population in that given country goes up, and finally another war or epidemic to lower it again.
    2. The reading was overall clear. The chart that shows the malign and benign forces of reducing inequality in stagnant and rising societies, helped me understand the concept much better. Milanovic mentions that wars can have varying affects in preindustrial societies. I found interesting that the type of war that occurs in a certain country can influence inequality. Wars of conquest can lead to an increase in inequality, whereas, wars that resulted in “state collapse” lead to a decrease in inequality. In industrial societies, wars have so far have worked to reduce inequality.
    3. The Malthusian Cycles depict the relativity of population growth in accordance to food production. This cycle suggests that societies experience gains in food production, resulting in higher population growth. However, overtime the population growth will exceed food production, leading to a crash in production and population due to food shortages. Malthus believed that this cycle is continuous because after the crash, it will repeat: food production will increase overtime to satisfy the demands, population will grow at a faster rate and exceed the rate at which food is produced, leaving that society in starvation. This was defined as the Malthusian Crisis in the video.
    4. The race between education and technology is the race between the supply of educated and high skilled workers, and the demand for workers fit for job positions that meet the required technical skills. No matter which one is ahead in the race, it will always benefit the high skilled worker, widening the inequality gap. If the supply of educated workers surpasses the advancement of technology, then inequality goes up; leaving no room for people at other education levels to compete and obtain those jobs. If technology continues to surpass education, that too will lead to inequality. According to the video, the only way to win the race is with “more rapid expansion” and gained access to higher quality schooling for all. This will provide prior disadvantaged individuals with opportunities that will increase their incomes and compete with the elites.

  13. 1.From the powerpoint, everything was clear and organized which helped me understand a little better. It also allowed me to draw connections with current events too.
    2. The reading was clear and I felt like it helped clarify one of the topics in the powerpoint. Also I felt that the way that I did have to re read the section that mentioned benign and malign forces because at first it was a little unclear.
    3.Malthusian Cycles are referred to as the relationship between food supply and population. The video explains how population growth is always exceeding the production of food supply. This can cause periods of famine and food shortages when the population exceeds the amount of food that can be produced to feed and sustain it. Also explained was how this same instance was repeated over time in history, which became a cycle that could also be predicted.
    4. The race between education and technology means that it could create advantages and disadvantages for others. This creates a sort of competition between the two which factors into inequality as it creates a disconnection between education and knowledge in skills needed to use certain technologies in people. Also this conversation points at how it can be looked at as a supply and demand between education and technology, whereas they both need to be balanced so that inequality doesn’t increase. Inequality will increase when technology advances beyond education because it creates less of a demand/need for certain skills that were once high demand.

  14. 1.The PowerPoint was clear to understand. The slide that interested me the most was when unions come into play because the wages of the workers are different when they are part of a union. This makes me wonder if there would be less inequality within countries since they will have a living wage. On slide 9, the topic of how inequality can be lowered due to the outside factor is an example of COVID-19. We have seen a decline in the population due to a virus; however, only the poor people are mostly affected. As a result, the rich will get even richer because many people have lost their job due to the virus.

    2. The reading was clear because it involved more explanation from the PowerPoint. Chapter 2 went further into how the war affected the inequality in the world. The chaos of the first world was a shock for the countries involved because each nation received a different response. The war, for instance, did not redistribute income to the lower-income class; instead, the rich stayed with their wealth. The second war was a different outcome because it brought more distribution to poor people making inequality lower.

    3. The Malthusian Cycles is the concept of the production of food in the world and population. The cycle explains how the population does not grow at the same speed as the production of food. Food grows at a slower-paced because the earth can only sustain a certain amount of people. A mass increase in population will make people starve because food takes longer to grow, forcing a population decline. Technology has helped with faster food production during the 20th century; however, there is still a lack of food shortage. Malthusian predicts there will be more food shortage as we approach new decades.

    4. The race between education and technology is a concerning issue since technology can be more advanced than the people who are being informed about new technology. In the video, education is essential because people tend to make more money lowering the inequality levels. Technology over the years has replaced many of the jobs a high school education would be able to quality, changing jobs for the majority to be service jobs and skills. The solution to the problem from the video is to give more access to a college education.

  15. 1. From my PowerPoint presentation, what isn’t clear? Any thoughts or comments you would like to share?

    I understood the powerpoint, I just have a few questions.
    – Were Pre-industrial societies more equal? Even if there was no room for social mobility?
    – Can inequality decrease if there are more mixed marriages?
    – Is marriage still a viable source for reducing inequality?
    – And can these “poor” countries become richer? What would they have to do to become a major global leader?

    2. From the reading what is not clear?

    I have a question about malign and benign forces. Can something be deemed as a benign force, but be very bad for environmental and social structure? For a historical example, when the value of slave labor here in the United States exceeded the value of all the railroads and factories.

    3. After watching the video on Malthus, in your own words, explain what are Malthusian Cycles?

    Malthusian cycles are the relationships between food and population. From the cycle, we can understand that if the population increases faster than the amount of food there is we can experience a crash. In this crash, we would see a food scarcity, where people can die because there are people than there is food.

    4. After watching Katz’s video, in your own words, explain what is the race between education and technology?

    The race between education and technology is the race between the supply of education and the demand for workers and skills. If the amount of people receiving an education increases, than inequality is likely to go down. Education is the supply, while skills and workers are the demand. If the advancement of technology increases and surpasses education, we can see an increase in inequality. What we want to do is have easier access quality education to allow reduce the gap and increase the value of workers.

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